A connector assembly comprises a cage, a plurality of contacts, and a light guide pipe. The cage includes an outer cage, a middle vertical partition plate, and two horizontal partition plates connected to each side of the middle vertical partition plate. The middle vertical partition plate and the horizontal partition plates are constructed to divide an inner space of the cage into a plurality of chambers. The contacts are mounted in respective chambers of the cage. The light guide pipe is mounted on the contact and located in a space defined between the horizontal partition plates when the contact is mounted to the cage.
There are typically two types of connector assemblies that employ such a configuration. One type of connector assembly includes two contacts mounted in two chambers which are defined at left and right sides of the cage and separated by the middle vertical partition plate. The two contacts each have a first light guide pipe and a second light guide pipe which are integrated together by a connection member at ends of the first and second light guide pipes. The other type of connector assembly also includes two contacts mounted in two chambers which are defined at left and right sides of the cage and separated by the middle vertical partition plate. Each of the two contacts has a light guide pipe. A protrusion is formed at an inner side of two horizontal partition plates at each side of the middle vertical partition plate of the cage, and the protrusion is located on an extension path of the light guide pipe.
Assembly of the light guide pipe and the contact together to form a contact sub-assembly and assembly of the contact sub-assembly and the cage together to form the connector assembly are all performed manually. Thus, the efficiency of the whole assembly operation is low, and during assembling, the contact sub-assembly and especially the light guide pipe may easily collide with the cage, damaging the light guide pipe.